Loving in Color

MARCH PROMPTLY PENNED

This month the prompt consists of the line: “It’s okay. You don’t have to love me.” I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, but I finally came up with an idea. It’s not very long, but I hope you like it.

Dana burst out laughing, almost shooting Pepsi out her nose. “You didn’t say that, did you?”

Her best friend, Gina, rolled her eyes. “No, of course not. I said, ‘That’s good, because I don’t.’”

“Well, yeah, you’ve only been dating…what? Two weeks?”

“If that, so I am definitely not in love with him.”

Dana shook her head. “So, he thinks he’s in love with you?”

“Hell no,” Gina said, “he just wants in my pants. Because after he delivered his line worthy of a B-grade film he said, ‘Just let me love you.’ Then he grabbed one of my tits.”

Dana really tried not to laugh, she really did, but just couldn’t help it. Her best friend ended up in the most bizarre situations with the most bizarre men. There’d been the guy who claimed he was an actor, which he wasn’t. He was an usher at the theatre. Another guy said he was an award-winning song writer and told Gina he’d written songs like Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, but that the singer had stolen it. And, on and on. Dana really couldn’t remember the last normal guy Gina had dated.

“And then what happened?” Dana couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Oh, he dropped his pants and revealed he wasn’t wearing underwear. What he did have was a tattoo that said love machine right above his dick.”

“You can’t make this shit up.”

Gina smiled. “Oh, hell no, I don’t have this good of an imagination.”

“So, what did you do?”

“I slapped his hand off my tit, grabbed my purse and left. He tried to run after me, but, instead, tripped over his pants and fell out into the main hall of his apartment building. The elderly lady who lives across the hall came out then and screamed since he was naked. I didn’t stay around to find out what happened then.”

“I’m so sorry, but this stuff only happens to you.”

“I know and this is why I’m taking a break from dating. Hopefully, if I give it a few months the weirdos will have all found other people and I can find somebody, at least, half way normal.”

“Okay, that’s not what I expected to hear. You once told me that if you didn’t have a date for the weekend you’d shrivel up and waste away.”

“Obviously, I’m stupid. And, if I would waste away it’d be preferable to the men I’ve been seeing.”

Dana shook her head. “That’s just it. You’re not dating men, you’re dating boys. Maybe you need to start looking somewhere other than the bars and clubs for guys to date.”

Gina smiled. “You’re brilliant. I’ll join an online dating site.”

Jumping up, she raced out of the room before Dana had a chance to respond. Sitting back in her chair, she knew, without a doubt, there were more weirdos in Gina’s future. With the internet, the pool was going to be wider and deeper. Dana didn’t know whether to be afraid or excited at the prospect of even more entertainment.